This invention relates generally to harvesting machines, such as windrowers or mower-conditioners, of the type having a header with a pair of counter-rotating conditioning rolls to deliver crop material in a rearwardly directed stream for ultimate deposit on the ground in windrow, and, more particularly, to a floating swathgate for optimally directing crop responsive to upward or downward movement of the header.
A windrower typically consists of a self-propelled tractor or similar vehicle, and a cutting mechanism which is either towed by the tractor or carried thereby. The cutting mechanism carried by a windrower is typically referred to as a header, and is supported on the windrower by forwardly projecting arms in a manner that allows the header to float across the ground surface independent of the motion of the tractor. Current practice in agriculture is to cut a relatively wide swath of the crop within a range of anywhere between 10 and 16 or more feet in width, and then consolidate the crop into a narrower, substantially continuous windrow, in which form the crop is left to dry in the field until the moisture content has been reduced to a value suitable for subsequent harvesting operations, such as baling.
It is highly desirable to combine multiple windrows together as they are being mowed. This practice eliminates a raking operation and also reduces the number of passes of subsequent harvesting operations (e.g., chopping and baling). With the advent of higher capacity forage harvesters and balers, merging windrows is becoming a more desirable practice. Windrow merging attachments are thus more prevalent on harvesting machines. Windrow mergers are generally connected to the tractor chassis and held in a fixed position in the flow of crop being ejected by the header. A movable conveyor on the merger apparatus intercepts the ejected crop prior to it reaching the ground and conveys to a ground location laterally displaced from the windrower centerline.
Proper positioning of the merger apparatus is essential to intercept the majority of the crop material and minimize wastage. However, as the merger apparatus is typically held stationary with respect to the chassis while the header is allowed to move relative to the chassis, some crop material may be directed away from the merger conveyor as the harvester moves across the ground. Movable side shields and swathgates are often employed to deflect the crop material ejected from the conditioner rolls to a desired location, but these are often statically positioned and are not dynamically repositioned in response to header movement. As a result, the crop flow may not be ideally directed toward the merger conveyor as the header moves, such as when the header is tilted to vary cutting height or when it is raised or lowered at the end or beginning of a cutting swath.
It would be desirable to provide an apparatus to adjust the swathgate in conjunction with header movement to optimize the crop trajectory for interaction with a merger apparatus and minimize crop loss that would overcome the above problems and limitations.